It's that time of year again when many of us are thinking about clearing out the clutter and freshening up our living spaces. Despite our best intentions, though, often the stuff we want to purge never really gets out of our homes. The solution: Pre-arrange a donation pickup before you start cleaning.

In a poll of 23,000 people, organizer Julie Morgenstern found that 40 percent of them still have bags and boxes of clutter they were trying to purge. A pre-arranged pickup will help you avoid that common trap.